Health secretary Matt Hancock has announced plans to share more data with local government in a bid to help track and trace COVID-19 cases more effectively.

Despite maintaining in the past that local authorities had all the data they need, the health secretary said he would share more data at a local level.

He told Parliament: ‘We are publishing more data, and sharing more data with local bodies.

‘Properly used, data is one of the best epidemiological weapons that we have.

‘From last month, local directors of public health have had postcode-level data about outbreaks in their area. And from today, as I committed to the House last week, we are going further and we are putting enhanced levels of data in the hands of local directors of public health too.’

Vice chair of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, Cllr Paulette Hamilton, said: ‘This will help give the level of detail needed for councils’ directors of public health and their teams to track down and isolate future flare-ups, to stop them spreading even further.

‘Councils need all the tools at their disposal to help with locating and preventing future local outbreaks of coronavirus in their communities.’